Valarie Lea From Tennessee, now in Alabama

Turn the page

2011-01-29T22:52:00.001-06:00

As I am sitting here bored on a Saturday night jumping from Facebook, to blogs, to Twitter and trying to get my brain to spit out all the words running around in my head, I happened upon this.....Its like someone was just waiting on me to get there to read this.....

"Look, if you're tired of the same old story, whoa, turn some pages."

So If I'm tired of the same old story....I need to turn the page...Que Metallica or Bob Segar which ever your into....

So ok maybe I am not a star on the road with amplifiers ringing in my ears riding in a tour bus and not knowing what city or town I am in....but....

I am a mother, with a full time job, a part time Mary Kay gig, and a life....I'm definitely as busy as a Rock Star....Que NickleBack....actually please don't...I don’t care for them thank you very much

So where am I going with this....Oh heck if I know, I am just spitting out words on to a page...ummm computer screen. I guess what I am saying is we are all busy we all have lives that are hectic and sometimes we just want to screeeeaaaammm.

We need to take a moment, we need to breath, and sometimes we need to turn the page....

Am I making any sense to anyone but myself????? Hello....anybody....

Dont feed the bad wolf....

2011-01-25T09:16:00.001-06:00

A friend showed this to me.....I needed it

An elderly Cherokee Native American was teaching his grandchildren about life…

He said to them, “A fight is going on inside me, it is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One wolf is evil—he is fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, competition, superiority, and ego.

The other is good—he is joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.
This same fight is going on inside you, and inside every other person, too.”
They thought about it for a minute, and then one child asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win, Grandfather?”

The Elder simply replied, “The one you feed.”

Dont feed the bad wolf....

2000 Flushes

2011-01-20T12:28:00.001-06:00

So I have been sitting on my pity pot and now it is time to flush it! <Insert toilet bowl flush here>

Ahhh doesn't that feel better! All Roses and Sunshine now! (Not really but we're gonna pretend) Denial people....its not just a river in Egypt but it will get you thru sometimes.

Im going to take a moment now and catch you up on things going on around the house. That way we are all up to speed. :)

Jessie is 20! She will be 21 in July! I am officially old....:( She has a new boyfriend who is a giant. No literally she comes up to his armpit.

They have given me a beautiful Grandbaby....Meet Abby :)

Isnt she precious.....:)

Yall didnt think I was talking about an actually baby did you??

Sydney is 16 and will be 17 in a May and yes again I feel old. She is a spit fire of a girl and I would not get in her way if I were you. She always has a boy somewhere not to far behind. We wont mention any names because it might be different next week. ;)

And then we have Little Logan :) He is a 10 year old Xbox & Nerf Gun enthusiast. It wears me out listening to him talk about these things. His pastimes are playing Xbox, modifying Nerf Guns, and pestering both of his sisters.

What about me you say???? Well I have started selling Mary Kay. I decided it was high time I do something a little extra for me and my future and since my job doesn't have a retirement plan, this was going to be mine. I just started it, but I can tell you now that I am going to love it. I mean what girl doesn't love make-up. :)

I have also decided to do a half marathon in Nashville. I think I had a moment of insanity when I registered for this. I am committed now and am looking forward to actually completing it! So look for more posts about that later.

So until the next time....buh bye!!!

Question...

2011-01-13T13:26:00.001-06:00

What do you do when you have lost trust in someone? That is the question. How do you move forward when you put yourself out there and you keep getting beat up. One step forward, a hundred steps back...do you keep moving forward or change directions. What if that direction is big and scary and hard to go down and you feel you are going down it alone?

I guess I need to put my big girl panties on and suck it up....

Lets try this again

2011-01-12T17:59:00.000-06:00

So its been awhile. Not really sure who all is still around. I might actually be talking to thin air, but maybe it will help me clear my head. Its been going on about 2 years since I consistently blogged. These last couple of years have been filled with laughs from new friends and old. Unfortunately it has also been filled with a lot of heartache for new friends and old. I have realized that it is not a nice world out there. Why didn't someone warn me about mean people??? Without going into details lets just say, I need you all more than I ever knew. I need this outlet as therapy for me.

So I will be trying to get on here more. Try to get my feelings from my head to the paper...err screen. Its not easy putting your feelings out on Face book...people can be a bit judgey there. Judgey...that's a new word I just made up use it if you need to.

So until later which will hopefully be tomorrow....:)

Just sayin...

2010-04-23T12:07:00.001-05:00

So I am not one to brag about anything. So I am not gonna brag. I am just stating a fact.

I went to the Dove Awards and got to sit 3 seats away from Ricky Skaggs!!!!! He even said I could step on him if I needed to when I was leaving my seat. :) Lets see who else did I see??? Oh yeah! Brian "Head" Welch former guitarist for Korn. He is now a born again Christian and I must say being a child who grew up listening to Heavy Metal and Hair Bands...yeah I was totally siked to see him!!!!!! He performed with "Red" and let me just say it was so awesome! They totally rocked the place!

I also got to see......TOBYMAC!!!!!!!!!! Yeah he was there...like right there like about 30 feet from me. I thought I might loose it there for a second but I held it together. They performed "Funky Jesus Music" and it was awesome! This is apparently a video someone shot from the balcony at the Dove Awards. So its a little shaky, but you will get the picture.

At this point I am on the lower level in the middle. You never know you might actually see me if your looking hard enough when you watch on GMC Sunday night at 8/7 central!!! Come on you know you want to watch. :)

To say that I am a little excited that I got to go to this is an understatement. It was so much fun!

So go see if your cable of Satellite channel carries GMC so you can Tivo the Dove Awards. If they don't carry it find someone who does and go watch it. It was a great night with amazing performances. You don't want to miss it. By the way I am not getting paid to promote the show. It was just AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!

NOW

2010-03-31T11:27:00.001-05:00

What do you want to be when you grow up??? I cant answer that because I am not thru growing up, and when I am thru growing up I will probably be dead. So lets try it this way.......

What do you want to be....Now?

I will give you a quick run down of what I want to be NOW

Skinny - Who ever cursed me with the whole I'm rubber and your glue what bounces off of me and sticks to you thing is gonna get it when I find them....

Creative - I feel I have no time for this...thus it comes out in odd ways...and this is why people think I am crazy....

Computer nerd - I want to take some classes on web designs, graphics, Photoshop...I want to get my creativeness out this way....but alas I have NO TIME!

Rich - Ok who doesn't

Compassionate - I am going to be honest....mercy is not my gift. Oh I want to be merciful, but sometimes it just doesn't happen. Don't judge, I can give mercy, sometimes I am just so wrapped up in things that I miss the moments to be merciful. Ok I will break it down to you in this nutshell WHINING = VALARIE NOT MERCIFUL ...I'm working on it people

Giving - this is a whole different category....I will give you the shirt off my back. I just want to be able to give more.....See also Rich

Yoga Instructor - this is just one of my off the wall things. I have been to one class in about 3 years and now all the sudden I want to teach it. Yeah comical I know, but I think I can do it. :)

So just a glimpse at some of the things I want to be now. In order to accomplish these things I think I need to join an army of Amazon women and become Wonder Woman! That lasso of truth would really come in handy with the kids. :)

So what do you want to be now? I know I will probably not get one answer to this, because of my long blogging absence. So I am probably talking to only my spammers who send me comments....just blogging out into no mans land.....all alone in the cold darkness of the internets.

Mic check 2 - 1 - 2...is this thing on???

2009-11-04T17:39:00.001-06:00

Well I have been MIA since July 28, here it is 3 months later.....

I wonder if people will remember me, if they will even care. Did you take me off your blog roll????

Ya see I have this problem, its called Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. What?? When did I get diagnosed with that?? Oh I haven't been, I sorta diagnosed myself. :) Ya see I tend to compulse over random things and then I don't finish them. This is my list.....

Cross Stitching....I have like 5 projects that have been trying to get completed since 1992. I wonder if my sister still wants those bears I was working on....

Exercising....Yeah that is an ongoing on again off again love affair...sigh

House Work....ok yeah so I never am compulsive about that

TuTus.....yes I now make tutus and I have a lot of Tulle and not a lot of tutus finished. Now I finished the ones that were ordered, but the ones in my head, yeah they are still there....

Crafts....to many to list. My craft room is now the crap room.

Cooking....Oh I was gonna cook a lot of stuff....I have the recipes does that count??

Redoing Furniture....My garage is running over with stuff I thought I would "re-do"

Twilight.......Still obsessed :)

Blogging....My sister said I would not keep it up....she was right. I did make it a year and then something happened. Stupid Facebook....:(

So this is my attempt to get back on the horse! I am want to blog again! I want to feel the wind on my fingertips as I type feverishly on the keyboard. So this is where you come in. If you are my friend on FB you my lucky one get to hold me accountable! You get to say, " I better see a post from you today, and I mean Stat!" So are ya gonna do it??? Are ya gonna help me????? Pretty Please with Sugar on top?????

Oh and just so you remember me and what I look like, this is me.....

Yeah more on that outfit later.....I need something to blog about. :)

Sooooooo.....

2009-07-28T15:07:00.001-05:00

So I have not been around lately....

Sometimes I take things in spurts, I can never stick with anything to awful long. It comes in cycles though. I start thing, I dont finish them, or continue them, and then I pick them back up again. So goes blogging....

Well I am trying to pick it back up again. I miss you guys....:(

I miss knowing whats going on, but my biggest problem right now is finding the time to read everybodys stuff. It might help if I wasn't addicted to crackbook, but its so fun over there....

Well enough of me whining. So how has everybody been, life treating you good?

This is what has been going on with me (in no particular order).....

I have learned how to make tutus and become an Ellerina!

Decided to take up selling ice cream...(not really I just hijacked the ice cream truck! You should have seen the look on the guys face when I hoped in there.)

Jessie turned 19!

Went to Mission Fuge again, but this time I did not break my toe.

Syd was in her first ever beauty pageant...

Its been tractor pull time around here again....

Oh and did I mention, we almost got thrown out of Wally World.....

Yeah so that's been my life in a nutshell. More to come soon, I promise!

~cough, cough~

2009-07-27T10:26:00.001-05:00

Dang at the cobwebs and dust around here! I really need to pay more attention to this place.......:)

Dream a little dream...

2009-05-18T17:31:00.001-05:00

There is a time of sleeping that seems to be a parallel universe. Its a state of consciousness and unconsciousness, a state of vividness. It seems to happen when that first alarm goes off in the morning and you hit snooze. You roll back over and enter a very very strange world. Every now and then when you wake up, you can remember everything. Sometimes you probably wish you didn't remember.

The other morning I had such a dream. It was a place where all me randomness converged into one major story.....

I remember being in front of my Daddies house. Syd and I were in a car. I think I was teaching her how to drive. (I learned how to drive in front of my Daddies house) For some reason though, the car would only go in reverse (I learned how to drive in front of my Daddies house by driving in reverse, then putting it in drive and going back to the end of the road), and the breaks would not work and the accelerator was stuck. The road however seemed to just keep going. Then a car approached us quickly and then passed us. It was a mail car. (My Daddy was a mail man) I was being driven by the Jonas brothers, they were wearing red jackets. (I have no idea what that means)

Suddenly the end of the road was coming at us very fast! I told Syd to hold on and then I reversed it into the ditch across the street hoping it would slow the car down. The car continued on, only coming to a stop in the neighbors back yard. Stopping like 20 feet from a bunch of children that were being babysat by one of Syds friends. (Hi Taylor!)

(I talk with my hands)

Then Carl Winslow came out of the house (Must of watched Family Matters before I went to bed) and was the police officer working the wreck.

Then as I was standing in the neighbors yard I noticed these bricks that were on his house. They all had numbers on them. He told me that they actually were there honoring his family who died in the holocaust. They were the numbers that were given to them at the camps.

Now can someone please tell me what in the world all of that would mean!

It was really really weird.....

What's up!

2009-05-11T18:01:00.001-05:00

I know, I know I should just be whipped with a wet noodle, cause I have not been blogging.

Its been a bit crazy around here, things have been taking my time, like the gym, facebook, the kids, facebook, Church, facebook, work, facebook ya know the usually stuff.

Some things that have happened while I have been gone:

Jessie wrecked her car. She is fine the car had some major boo boos, but will make a full recovery this week.

Our neck of the woods got the swine flu. WooHoo schools closed for two days and now we have to make them up at the end of the year and shorten our already very short summer!

Syd got "attacked" at school. She wants me to call it that, because she did not get a lick in. She is fine, nothing stops that kid.

Jess has sprouted wings and is attempting to jump out of the nest. I am not taking this very well. :( God told me to let her go he had her, so I have. Please pray with me that she will make wise decisions.

I have a stye on my eye from crying so much.

I know you wanted to see the stye, but this is just an illustration very similar to my eye. Except I have brown eyes and much longer lashes. :)

And the big one........

Syd now has a learners permit. We got it today. She almost killed us like twice already. Please pray for my sanity.

And just for your viewing pleasure, some picture of Me, Mama, Lisa, and Robin yesterday after we took Mama to eat for Mothers day.

Ok hopefully it wont be so long between post this next time. I might not be around long after posting these pictures anyway. :)

Cause I'm Shameless

2009-04-22T10:12:00.001-05:00

There is this awesome Etsy shop out there in Etsy land, that I think you need to know about!

This place has some awesome items! Just look at some of this awesome jewelry!

LOVE IT!! WANT IT!!!!

This would so go with what I have on right now!

Can you say goes with everything!

Moonshine Jewelry is run by an awesome girl named Amanda, and she just happens to be my niece!!!!! So go now and check her out. You never know if yall go over and order stuff, she might just give me a kickback on something.

~cough cough "green with envy bracelet" cough cough~

Love you Mandy!!!!

(By the way don't call her that, it ruffles her feathers)

Amanda and the most awesomely awesome Aunt evah!

Oh Barbie the place you will go....

2009-04-21T12:44:00.001-05:00

Ya know I have been sitting around thinking about what to blog. I mean my creativity has been a little lacks lately and I just feel that I can't bore you with all my ball stuff. Then on the way home the other night, a random blog post just fell into my lap.

As I was minding my own business, driving down the parkway I see the strangest sight. So I pull out my trusty camera to document what my eyes are seeing....

Do you see it????? This is not just an ordinary Harley! This is a Harley with a pole dancing Barbie!

Oh Barbie the things you have seen.....

Dear Mr. Motorcycle Man,

Thank you for letting me take your picture, even though you did not know it. I have tried to keep your identity save.

kthanx :)

HILL-AIR-E-US!!!!!!!!

2009-04-16T16:09:00.001-05:00

Ok so I just saw this status update from Mr. Archiemck himself.......

Archie

RT @helsinkiwinner: Can't stop laughing at http://myparentsjoinedfacebook.com/ <-- Awesome!

Oh sorry you don't know what a status is? Bless your heart.....

Well its a crackbook thing. Sorry, Facebook..:)

This website http://myparentsjoinedfacebook.com/ is awesome, I don't think I have laughed so hard in forever!!!

Here are some examples:

Go on over have a laugh and if you see me on that website, let me know. K? K :)

Oh and by the way... The dog is at the neighbors again, this after Big Logan calls me wanting to know why there is a dog in his garage. :)

LOST

2009-04-13T21:08:00.000-05:00

The other day, Friday to be exact, we had some major storms come thru here. It left a path of destruction and debris in its path. It also left a dog at my house.....

(Not actual dog, this is just a dog that looks like the dog)

We now have a Miniature Collie, or Sheltie running around outside.

You see I got this call right after the storms from Jessie telling me, "Oh mommy, we have a new little dog, he is oh so cute and precious, and well mannered, and pretty, and precious, and can we keep him? Huh Huh Huh Huh.......

Me being the wonderful Mother that I am, I said that dog better be gone, by the time I get home! So they took it over to my sister Lisa's house to try to pawn it off on her. It was close and she almost caved, but in the end she held her ground.

I told the girls, he probably just got lost during the storm, let him run around and he will eventually go home.

Saturday, the dog is still here running around.

Saturday evening the dog is gone. :)

Then I find out that the dog is at the neighbors in the back yard. At this point I am thinking better you than me.

Sunday still no sign of the dog running around, still must be at Josh's.

Sunday evening, the dog is back at my house. (I did not tell the girls, I went in the house and never mentioned seeing a dog)

Monday morning, the dog is walking with my Mother-in-Law... Ugh!

Monday evening (tonight) , I just stopped Jessie as she was driving down our road, on my way back from the gym. She had the dog in her lap, in the car!

Now to make this whole thing worse, other than the fact that Jessie does not want to actively seek the owner, she went and took the dog off the neighbors front porch this evening.

My child is a dog stealer......Lord help her :(

When I asked her what she had to say for herself, this was her response.....

"Finders Keepers, Losers Weepers"

Please, If anyone has lost a Miniature Collie in the North Alabama area, please email me, I think he is at my house.

Paaaaaaalllleeeeaaassseeeeee! I don't want another dog! :(

E.C. VS THE E.C.W :)

2009-04-10T11:05:00.001-05:00

There are times when you see an opportunity and you just have to seize it. Seize it I tell ya!

Pocket Edward woopin up on some wrestlers!

Logan put Pocket Edward down!!!

DDDDDDDD-NOW! D-NOW!!!

2009-04-08T17:40:00.001-05:00

Ok I was a bad bad photographer this weekend. I guess the whole making sure 12 teenage girls get ready and get to where they have to go, did a number on me. I kept leaving the house with out my camera. So what you are about to experience is D-NOW on Saturday evening after we got back from the Church. At this point we had all the girls and the 11th and 12th grade boys. For a total of 16 teenagers.

First It was about 11:00 at night and I hopped them up on sugar, cause I am brave that way. I will look danger in the face and say bring it on in the form of a bunch of teenagers.

*** Disclaimer - I will only stand in the face of danger in the form of a bunch of teenagers, if they are good teenagers. These were good teenagers. At least they were at that moment. ;)

We made Smeeps! What you have never heard of smeeps?? Well let me show you!

Smores with Peeps = SMeeps

What, What!!!!

Mmmmmm Sugary goodness!

________________________________

Jake, one of the guys, then took my camera and started taking random pictures.

See my Vacuum? Yeah I heard Martha Stewart say one time that if your vacuum is out when company comes over, it makes it seem like you are all domesticated and stuff. At least I think it was Martha Stewart? Maybe it was Peg Bundy ......

Someone needs a haircut....

Ummm Yeah.........

More to come....well more to come when I get more pictures from Melinda, since she took her camera. :)

My sister made me do this :)

2009-04-07T15:11:00.001-05:00

Cause she is tired of reading my last post. So I am now posting a post to replace the previous post. :)

Once I can get my pictures downloaded, I will show you my weekend for D-now.

Picture this 10 to 12 teenage girls in my house trying to get ready, and then when we would have down time most of the teenage boys were at my house also. So at one point I had 18 teenagers and Little Logan in the house. It was quite and experience. :)

More to come soon.......

I am losing followers :( I am a loser...

2009-03-31T15:19:00.001-05:00

1. I guess that means I should post something. I am tired of giving you my reasons for being gone, because I sound like a broken record. Busy, Busy, Busy lets just put it that way.

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2. So the other day as I was doing my elliptical trying to read, I realized that it was difficult to read and do an elliptical. Your head bounces all over the place and you can't stay focused on the words.

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3. Warning this is a random post

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4. Out my backdoor looking at a storm....

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5. The story about the baby chicks is partially true. Lisa said Mama bought them though after Lisa picked them out of the front window at Koons Department store. We really did eat them, I asked my Daddy to be sure.

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6. Koons Department store burned to the ground. The whole town sat on the square and watched. Including me, I think I was about 8.

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7. I am not sure if thats how you spell Koons Department Store.

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8. It was next door to Carters Drug store. Ya know that saying "Carters Little Pills", well they have a lot of little pills.

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9. The Municiple building now stands where Koons once stood.

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10. One of my first jobs was working at the movie theater downtown.

Its haunted :[

11. I have about 500 unread post in my reader. :( I am sorry I have neglected you. Please forgive me.

Wittle Baby Chicks!

2009-03-25T14:55:00.001-05:00

My friend Brandi just finished with some photo sessions involving baby chicks.

It reminded me of when we were little and my Daddy brought us home some baby chicks.

Not this kind... .

but this kind.....

It was awesome! They were so so cute! I can remember looking into the cage and picking mine out. I really don't even remember what color I picked out. I just remember the fascination and wonder of looking at those colored little chicks!

We watched them grow into gangly little "teenage" chicks, and by then they were getting a little too big for their cage.

One day I came home and noticed my chickens were gone!

"Daddy what happened to my chickens??"

I don't think he ever answered me....

Later that night we sat down to eat supper.

We were having chicken and dumplins.

Coincidence? I think not!

PRAY! PRAY HARD!!

2009-03-25T12:29:00.001-05:00

Stellan is in a serious condition right now. Please lift him up now!

Valarie needs what???

2009-03-24T14:22:00.001-05:00

So my dear Tammy over at Greek Grits had this meme that she didn't tag anyone on, and I am glad, I hate getting tagged. That's why I stay away from playing tag. I am slow. I always get caught. Then I have to chase people around and then because I am slow, I can't ever "tag" anyone else and then I start to pout and then it all goes down hill from there.

Anywhoo, I chose to do this little meme of my own accord, I thought it would be interesting. Apparently you put your name in Google along with the word needs. Lets see what we come up with shall we?

Valarie needs a trust fund (Yes that would be nice, but this trust fund is for a little girl with Aicardi's Syndrome)

Valarie needs to be adopted (Nope I already have a family, but this girl does not, unless she has already been adopted, and I hope she has by a wonderful family.)

Valarie needs a life (Now that's just not nice!)

Valarie needs to go (Go where, I don't know? Maybe to the beach. )

Valarie needs Real Estate Agents (Nope sorry have plenty of them here where I work)

Valarie needs to go to this restaurant (But not planning to go to Jersey anytime soon)

Valarie needs a challenge (Got any ideas?)

Valarie needs to lose the jacket to be one step up from whack (Well I never!)

Valarie needs to lay of those drugs ( I don't do that kind of thing! I grew up with this image in my head people! I don't want a fried brain!)

Valarie really needs a vacation (Yes, Yes I do! At last that one is right!)

So try it, let me know what you need. You never know what it will say.

Don't have a life?? I know famous people, people!!! Don't believe me??? Then look at this.....

No life my foot!

Where to start??

2009-03-23T14:01:00.001-05:00

Warning long post with pictures!!!!!

As you all may remember, I was heading out Friday to go to a Twilight DVD release party. This is even though I already had my DVD, which thankfully arrived at work at 4:30. (You are a lucky man Mr UPS driver, I thought I was gonna have to hunt you down!)

With DVD in hand and Mini-E ready to go in my purse.....

We headed home, to get Syd, Kim, Kelsey and Hunter.

Here we all are before going......

Yes we made Hunter go, Young love will make you do crazy things, like force your boyfriend to a Twilight DVD release party, and him agreeing to go.

Where's Mini-E?

Since it was still early, we went to get something to eat, and since Mini-E does not eat real food, he just watched.

We finally made it to the oh so happening party! (catch any sarcasm there?)

~crickets~

I am sorry, I may be a big Twilight Fan, but this was just wrong!

Edward's hair would never look like that. I mean it does get a little crazy sometime, but that is just a little over the top. Bella dear, you look like you are trying to channel Victoria.

Soon after getting there, they started the Twilight trivia contest.

Let me just say the Syd and I rocked the trivia contest!

Oh it feels so good to woop up on some little 12 and 13 year olds.

________________

Now we had about an hour and a half full of nothing. You can get pretty bored with time on your hands, but with Mini-E around things can get pretty interesting.

He had not hunted in awhile and before I knew it he, had gotten him a grizzly, and a triceratops.

Wolverine started to start something, but Mini-E put him down quickly!

Judo Chop!

Don't start nothing, wont be nothing!!

Mini-E then went and hung out with some of the Superheros.

Him and the Hulk are buds.

He read the directors notebook.

Watch out for that other Dinosaur!

Here I asked him to pose with my new Twilight book. I had the paperback, but wanted a hardback to complete my collection.

While Mini-E and I had fun around the store, every one else just chilled.

and played I-Spy.

When 12:00 hit, we were leaving, and I-spied someone I thought I knew.

Low and behold it was my blog buddy Ashley!

We know each other, but have never "met"

It was so awesome to meet her, and she got to help us explain to the Books-A-Million dude, about how Edward sparkles!

She also got to meet Mini-E!

After that, we went home, and were to tired to watch the movie, but slept well knowing that we had it in our hands to watch whenever we wanted. So the next day Kim and I watched it while the girls were at softball practice. Then I watched it again yesterday, and I may watch it again tonight.

Oh and because if I don't post this picture, Jessie will have a duck fit, here is Mini-E driving her car. :)

He does like to drive fast. Just look at the scenery zooming by!

This precious one needs our prayers!

2009-03-23T12:18:00.001-05:00

Please go here and read whats going on now with Stellan and please put some prayers up for him.

:)

2009-03-20T16:47:00.001-05:00

Got it in my hands!!!!!!

Now I think its time to go home!!

By the way sorry for all my Twilight enthusiasm today, I just can't help it!

I need to wash my brain!

2009-03-20T14:40:00.001-05:00

Guess what I have!!!!! No its not the DVD yet, still waiting on that. (Where are you Mr. UPS man!!)

Sorry about the quality of the pictures.

So Jessie came by work to eat my food as usual, and while she was here I called around looking for my Mini-Edward. :) Well I called Spencer's. They had two, so I slammed the phone down and Jessie and I rushed over to the mall. I think I was there in 0.3 seconds or something like that. Anyway they had him with the other random action figures, right next to the EESSS***YOU KNOW WHAT****XXXXX items. So that is the reason for the title of my post, that place is just so not nice. They did have Mini-Edward though. He was the only nice thing in there.

Tonight he will be attending one of his Twilight DVD release parties with us. There will be lost of photos to follow. :)

Today's the day!!

2009-03-20T11:47:00.001-05:00

Today's the day! The sun is shining, the tank is clean, and we are gonna get out of...

Oh sorry wrong movie....

Today's the day!!!! I am right now at this very moment, this very second, waiting for the UPS man to pull up to the office. I don't know exactly when he is gonna get here, but when he does, I will be soooo happy!!! You see he has my Twilight DVD on his truck right now. I tracked it, I know!

Even though I have pre-ordered my DVD and its on the truck now, I am still going to go to the DVD Release party at my local Books-a-Million. I will take pictures and everything so there will of course be a blog post about it.

AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! :) Ok I feel better now!!!

And just in case you don't know what in the world I am talking about watch this...

Dear Me

2009-03-18T21:44:00.001-05:00

Dear Sweet Naive Teenage Valarie,

Do you remember this picture?

Well I was just wondering, do you think you could have gotten your hair any higher on that one side?

Did you also know that they make this thing called an eyebrow brush? They do, maybe you should have used one. Also that is some awesome blue eyeliner you are using there.

Dear Sweet Naive Teenage Valarie,

Did you know that some 20 years later, you would be obsessed with a teenage vampire saga, and not Duran Duran, Bon Jovi, or the Beastie Boys! I know its true.

Speaking of Beastie Boys, did you know that some 20 years later, that your children, by the way did you ever think you would have 3, would be playing a thing called Guitar Hero, to "No Sleep till Brooklyn". Yep I know its crazy!

Yes Dear Sweet Naive Teenage Valarie, you heard me right, you have 3 children. Two girls and a boy. Didn't see that first one coming did you. Best thing to ever happen to you. By the way they are gorgeous and are turning out to be really great kids.

I bet you didn't think you would ever be talking to people all over the world with this thing called a blog either. I tell you I have meet some wonderful people here in this blog world. Learned an awful lot too. You also will reconnect with sooooo many people that you have not talked to since high school on this thing called Facebook.

Yes Dear Sweet Naive Teenage Valarie, life will turn out alright, everything will not always be peachy, you will have some rough spots, but you will get through it and you will enjoy every minute of it. Ok maybe not every minute, but most of them. :)

Love Always,

Your older ( but not by much )self

For more self reflection head on over to Marcy's for some great Fro me to you Post's

Boy you are picky!

2009-03-16T17:14:00.001-05:00

L.L. is quirky like his Mama. So yes he gets it honestly. It is just funny how kids pick up on the same quirks that their parents have.

For instance I only like using certain forks and spoons. I have to use a longer fork with a thicker handle and it must be rounded. On the spoon it has to be the teaspoon and still have a thicker rounded handle.

For example this is pretty close to my silverware:

So last night I fixed L.L. his Ramen Noodles, because thats what the boy is living off of right now. Well most of the silverware was in the dishwasher, because no one in the house can load the dishwasher except me. All that was left was silverware sorta like this:

(I seriously hope you did not think I had all matching silverware)

I put the fork on the plate and waited.

He comes to get his food and immediately started saying .....

"Ew, Ew, Ew, thats an old fork, its an antique (yeah right), I can't eat off an old fork!"

So since all the other type of forks were in the dishwasher he settled for a plastic fork. My boy he does have some priorities he will not back down from.

We're in trouble now!

2009-03-13T14:33:00.001-05:00

16 years ago today, there was a major snow storm here in North AL and Southern TN. Snow drifts were everywhere! It was an awesome sight.

16 years ago today, my Nephew Wesley was born! It was an awesome sight, or so I have heard. I was not there, I was at home, because there was a snow storm and snow drifts were everywhere!

Little did I know that 16 years ago today that I would be so worried about this day. You see Wes and Syd are like this ( I am crossing my fingers) they are tight.

They play on Hay Bales together

She fixes his hair for pictures

She helps spray paint smiley faces on him :)

There Buds :)

So little Miss. Prissy Britches thinks she will be spending all her free time in TN with Wes and all his buddies. At least I know Wes wont let anything happen to her. Actually I don't think she would be able to meet a guy with him around. He probably wont let that happen either.

Today he got this.....

Yep we are in Trouble!

Happy Birthday Wesley Jay!!!!

When you get your license Monday, you better drive safe!!!!

Love your Aunt Bary :)

Perseverance

2009-03-12T10:57:00.001-05:00

I love this guy! :)

Today we celebrate 17 years of marriage! :)

He is my best friend. I can tell him anything, even though he says I always forget to tell him anything. :)

Together we have made three beautiful children!

(this is an old picture, look at how little they are!)

We have been to exotic places. Ok we have been to one exotic place, but I want to go to more. (hint hint)

I also want to be that size again. Oh to fit in those shorts.... :(

We have been through ALOT. We had our first baby when we were 17, and now over 19 years later and 17 years of marriage here we are. :)

I love you honey and I am so glad we have made it.

"Your still the one"
By Shania Twain
Looks like we made it
Look how far we've come my baby

We mighta took the long way
We knew we'd get there someday
They said, "I bet they'll never make it"
But just look at us holding on
We're still together still going strong

You're still the one I run to
The one that I belong to
You're still the one I want for life
You're still the one that I love
The only one I dream of
You're still the one I kiss good night

Ain't nothin' better
We beat the odds together
I'm glad we didn't listen
Look at what we would be missin'
They said, "I bet they'll never make it"
But just look at us holding on
We're still together still going strong

Please go visit Marcy over at "The Glamorous Life" for more "Fro Me to You" fun. :)

Boring ~Yawn~

2009-03-09T13:20:00.001-05:00

That is my life right now.

Nothing at all really exciting or blog worthy. My days and nights consist of church (choir practice, la la la, expressive worship practice), work (I can talk to you about the legal end of your refinance if you want to), softball (would you like to know the inner workings of high school softball???? I didn't think so. ), reading Eclipse for the second time ( e.mail me if you want to talk about it).

I lead an oh so exciting life!

I meant to do lots of laundry this weekend, that did not happen.

I meant to do lots of spray painting this weekend, that did not happen.

I did go out with my friend Melinda Saturday night. We took the girls to the movies and then we went and ate at this Mexican restaurant called Cantina Laredo that was really good. We were about to order dessert when the girls came and joined us so we ended up ordering three desserts.

MEXICAN BROWNIE
Brownie with pecans on a sizzling skillet with Mexican Brandy
Butter and vanilla or cinnamon ice cream

MEXICAN APPLE PIE
Sizzled in Mexican Brandy Butter and topped with choice of
cinnamon or vanilla ice cream

CHOCOLATE CAKE
With vanilla ice cream topped with chocolate sauce

Let me just say that the Mexican Apple Pie was awesome!!!!!! And the smell oh my gosh it was just as good as the pie! They bring it to you on a skillet and then pour the Brandy Butter over it and it sizzles and tastes and smells oh so delicious! Mmmmmmmm :)

Oh and then yesterday I went to Church, then Expressive worship practice, and then watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

I am telling you I am so exciting and fun to be around its scary!

What did you do this weekend????

Excuses, Excuses....

2009-03-05T12:31:00.001-06:00

Do you have a hard time getting you children to brush their teeth??? Do you have a hard time brushing your own teeth??? (I hope not)

The night time routine with L.L. is the same:

1. Take your shower

2. I mean it get in the shower

3. L.L. if I have to tell you one more time to get in the shower!!!

4. Logan that was not long enough in the shower there is NO WAY you could have washed off properly.

5. Logan did you wash your hair, come here and let me see

6. You hair is not even wet get back in there and actually take a shower!

7. Did you brush your teeth?

8. Logan go brush your teeth you don't want cavities.

9. Logan go brush your teeth girls don't like boys with stinky breath.

10. What do you mean you can't use your toothbrush??

Apparently L.L. can no longer use his toothbrush because there was one of these on there.....

Cant say that I blame him. Lucky for him we have backup toothbrushes. :)

Messy, Messy, Messy!

2009-03-02T11:33:00.001-06:00

Well its been about two weeks since I entered into the I heart faces thing. This one I just had to enter, because it is one I have been wanting to do.

Now you would think I would automatically have a picture of Little Logan. Nope, not today...

Girls can be just as messy as boys and sometimes messier. Especially my girls. Syd loves all things cute and pretty, and all things messy. She and Jessie both are a pretty good mix of princess and tomboy. When Syd was little, we were going fishing and I showed her the worm, I said honey to you want to touch it. She was about two, and she immediately grabbed the worm and put it in her mouth! I got it out before she could actually ingest the thing. BLECH!!!

So back to the real reason of this post. She is my messy one.

This is my precious little princess after going mudding.

Let me tell you she had some smooth skin after this!

Go check out some of the other MESSY pictures at I Heart Faces. They're are some really good ones over there.

Now thats what I'm talkin about!!!

2009-02-27T16:48:00.001-06:00

Ok I discovered last night that I have one more guilty pleasure. I knew it all along, but I just never really voiced it.

By the way there are ALOT of you who are in love with LOST. I am afraid if I started watching it, between that, Church, Twilight, Softball, and Blogging, my family would not have a mother.

So my other Guilty Pleasure.....ABDC, no I did not get dyslexic on my alphabet.

Its Americas Best Dance Crew people!!!!!

Oh to be able to dance that way. I was not gifted with any of these dancing skills. :( I wish I was.

This crew is awesome......Let me introduce you to Quest Crew. Please watch them they are AWESOME!!!!!! This was one of there performances last night!

Then they did this one!!

And to tie it in with my other guilty pleasure the guy who plays eric in Twilight, also helps sponser this crew with his clothing line. (I think I got that right)

Now they are up against another awesome crew! Its an all girls crew called Beat Freaks. I have never in my live been as amazed as I was with this performance!

Ok I am off to go find a hip hop class somewhere. Maybe they have a class out there for uncoordinated mothers who are 35. :) Hey Jennifer can you teach Hip-Hop????

Hi....

2009-02-26T14:56:00.001-06:00

My name is Valarie and I am addicted........

to Twilight

I am not ashamed, I will stand proud and tell you anything you need to know. I have read New Moon twice and am now reading Eclipse, again. I have watched the movie 3 times (I know that's not very many) and have already pre-ordered the DVD. I never thought I would be, lets just say slightly obsessed, with a teen vampire saga, but I am. There is just no explaining it unless you are there. I am trying to wean myself off, but its hard. This is not something you can just go cold turkey on. Especially when there are awesome things out there like this..........

So I am not some weirdo or anything, there are lots of us out there. I am just a 35 year old mother of three who likes all things Twilight.

What's your guilty pleasure??? I know you have them, there are a bunch of American Idol obsessed bloggers out there. I know your there, cause I read your post on it all the time. :)

What children might learn riding the bus......

2009-02-25T13:08:00.001-06:00

So some of you just can't even imagine me being trouble. Well I am sure my family would tell you different.

Another one of my thug moments, was again at Big K (I think, I don't know it could have been Wally World by then). Anyway my Mama, Daddy, Robin and myself are leaving and some truck, I don't even know what kind, maybe a cement truck or a dump truck drives by. I proceed to shout "What the H - E double hockey sticks is that!", but I did not say H - E double hockey sticks, I said THE word. I am sure I learned this on the bus.

I learned something else on the bus.

One day after getting off the bus, Mama thinks it is was probably 1st or 2nd grade, I was outside, and she said I kept pointing up at the sky. Picture this.......

Little 6 or 7 year old girl in the front yard pointing at the sky and trees, making noises like a gun. Mother comes out and asks the little precious girl with the

Donnie Osmond haircut.....

Mother: Honey what are you doing?

Precious girl with Donnie Osmond Haircut: Shooting Birds - bang, bang (of course the little girl was not saying bang bang, she was making actually gun noises, but I don't know how to spell a gun noise)

Mother: Where did you learn that!!!

Precious girl with Donnie Osmond Haircut: The boys on the bus, they do it all the time.... bang, bang

Yes, I was "Shooting Birds", and I was not pointing with my pointer finger, I was using tall man.

I really don't remember being bad after these episodes, I believe I was a perfect child after that. ;)

I used to be a thug....

2009-02-23T13:39:00.001-06:00

Yes you read right, I was a thug, a hooligan, a trouble maker. You see this face....

I explored my bad side people!

When I was in pre-school, I had to stand in the corner, do you want to know what for???? Well I will tell you. I was a drug-dealer at an early age! I Valarie Lea from Tennessee, now in Alabama, passed out Ludens Cherry Cough drops to the other 4 year olds in the class! There I said it! I did my time in the corner, but apparently that was not enough........

Along that same time, I was with my Mother and my Sister Lisa, (Robin could have been there, but she was just a little thing that I don't remember her being there) and we were at "Big K".

At this time in our lives it was ok for a 4 or 5 year old to go off and look at the toy section. Well I decided that I wanted something, and I was gonna get it! So I marched right up to the counter and grabbed me a pack of orange tic-tacs!

Its my one vice still to this day. I walked up to my mother and sister, just as proud as can be by my newly obtained love and thats when it happened.

Mama: Valarie Lea where did you get those tic-tacs!!!

Me: From up there

Mama: Where did you get the money to pay for them?!?!?!?

Me: Money? What's Money?!?

Mama: Come with me!

Picture it - Mother, dragging 5 year old through the store, while the 5 year old is screaming and crying and 12 year old sister is behind you probably saying, Oooo the police are gonna get you, you are going to jail!!!!!!

Mama: Here give this money to the cashier! You have to pay for those!!

Me: Waahaaaaaa!!! (as Mama forces my hand with the money up to the cashier)

Lisa: Snickers

So that was it, the end of my walk on the wild side, (that is until my teen years, we will not go there). I straightened up an flew right after that. (or did I)

To this day If I were to walk out of the store and have accidentally forgotten to pay for a pack of cough drops that were left underneath my purse, (not that that has happened or anything) I will march right back in and pay for them. That's just how I roll now.

I will completely understand if you do not think the same about me anymore. :)

So were you ever a trouble maker???

Update!!! -- I am using this for my Fro' Me to you. Go visit Kristin and see more stories of people back in the day. :)

Lets make something!

2009-02-20T16:35:00.001-06:00

Have you seen these....

I got them at the Dollar Store after seeing a post on them at Joys of Home. Then Amanda at Imperfectly Beautiful made something with them. If you live near her you better hope you can find any of these, cause she is buying them up!

So I thought I would do a chalkboard out of them.

So I got my trusty chalkboard paint out and went to town. Then I let it dry.

Then I took the green paint and put polka dots all around the edge. It was a bit neon looking so I toned it down by off seating the teal on top of the green after the green had dried.

Next I just added a cute little ribbon and Whalah!!!

Easy Peasy!!!

And it continues...

2009-02-19T10:30:00.001-06:00

Today is the first day of our softball season! To say that I am excited it an understatement. Yet with that excitement comes some wonderful memories and anticipation for the future. You see last year was Jessie's last year for softball. Gosh I am getting teary eyed again just thinking about it. She has been playing softball since she was five, and I had a harder time letting go last year than she did.

Jessie walking away after her last game ever.. :(

getting a hug from a fellow player

Now the legacy will continue.

See Jessie and Sydney are four years apart, which means Jessie graduated last year, and Syd started to the high school this year. So we are starting all over with high school softball with Syd this year. Like she did in middle school, she has taken her sisters number. Maybe I wont cry tonight.

This is the look I always get when I take her picture while she is playing ball. :)

Don't believe me?? Let me show you....

Last night I came home to hear Syd complaining. She was complaining about all the stains, Jessie had left on the uniform. :)

Jess about to steal a base and slide to get the uniform dirty

I think when Syd graduates I am asking for the uniforms. They can just retire their number.

Ok I have to stop writing this now before I start crying my eyes out at work.

For more Sincerely Fro Me to You's go to Kristen's place at We are THAT family.

Is anybody wondering?????

2009-02-18T13:28:00.001-06:00

Is anybody wondering who the winner of my giveaway was?!?! No you did not miss the announcement, you did not miss the drawing. I just finally got around to it last night. :} (sheepish grin here)

What its only 38 day after the fact. Really I am so so sorry..... :(

Anyway lets get on with this thing!

Drumroll please......................................

My lovely assistant

Tidymom come on down!!!!

For participating and being oh so patient. You are the lucky winner of a Week in the Bahamas!!!!!!

Ok, not really :)

But you did win these lovely prizes!

Mango and Lime Sugar scrub!

Tea towels that have a magnet attached that will stick to your fridge!

(unless you have a stainless steel fridge that magnets wont stick to like mine)

A spa mask... ahhhhhh

and this oh so cute nest with eggs in it!

But oh that's not all!!!!!!

You have also won a wonderful chalkboard made by yours truly!!!!!

(tutorial to come later)

Now because I felt bad for taking so long to get this done (which is the reason I have not had a giveaway sooner) I decided to pick one more name. :)

This person will receive a chalkboard that I will make for them. So lovely assistant who is it going to be?!?!??!

Its Archie Mck!!!! Hey Archie, I hope your a crafty kind of person. :)

I will try not to make it so girly, unless you are gonna give it to your wife, then I will make it girly! :)

Again I am so so so so so so so so so so sooooorrrrrryyyyyyyyy, for being a procrastinator! I am working on it, not very hard, but I am working on it. :)

Bang Bang Choo Choo Train

2009-02-13T16:14:00.001-06:00

Does this get on your nerves as much as it does mine?!?!?!??!?!

Ok just checking....:)

Photo 101

2009-02-12T11:57:00.001-06:00

Now this is gonna be good. Me explaining how a picture was taken.

Many of you have wanted to know how these pictures were taken.

Well its pretty simple. You might not even believe me when I tell you.

Have your subject get on their knees
Stand over the top of them with them looking up
get as close as you can without them going out of focus
snap the picture

Told ya easy

Now the difficult part is this

Keeping younger sister from putting her fingers into the shot

Keeping your feet out of the shot

Keeping younger sister from crawling into shot with you

and then messing your hair up

And again keep younger sister from messing with your hair, and then having the other younger sister (me), wait until older sister is ready. :)

If you need to and your subjects are being difficult...

Pop them in the head to get them in line....

Two other tips to make your big head little body photo shoot go well are these...

Make sure there knees are in the picture
shoot on a solid surface (green grass works best)

The camera used was a Nikon D80 with the smaller of my lenses, I do not know what the name of the lens is. Its a standard lens, maybe its the 18-135mm (Lisa says 18-55)???? I also have my camera on auto ALL the time. I know, I know I am hearing the gasps now, but I don't know all the settings, and frankly when I try to learn them it just overwhelms me. :(

So go try it out this weekend. Then I want to see what you come up with. :)

Blah

2009-02-11T20:54:00.001-06:00

Do you ever get the blahs? I have them right now. :|

I feel like so much is going on and not enough time to do them. To many things running around in my head, and I can't grab hold of any one of them. Its like trying to jump on a merry-go-round, but it wont slow down long enough for you to get on.

I really feel like just covering up my ears and saying la la la la la la la la...........

~sigh~

Maybe tomorrow when I wake up the blahs will be gone. I hope so, cause I got a lot to do and think about and I don't have time for blahs.

Can you say ewwwww!!!!!

2009-02-09T17:53:00.001-06:00

Picture it......

Morning, everyone is still groggy and grumpy. Little Logan is being difficult and still just wants to lay down for two more minutes. Being the good mother I am I ask him if he wants his cinnamon life in a ziplock bag to go. Many screams of no I don't want that, I want a pop-tart. So off into the kitchen I go to send him off to school with his delicious and nutritious Pop-Tart. (Attention Big Wigs at Pop-Tarts, I will take Pop-Tarts if you want to send them my way seeing as my children live off of them.)

That's when it happened I stopped dead in my tracks and screamed a silent scream.........

I backed up slowly and ran to get my Father-in-Law, who thank you Lord, takes Logan to school in the morning. He comes into the kitchen to find one of these.....

Upside down, with one of these

Walking from my pantry with the glue thing on his back! Thank goodness it slowed him down. (shudder)

Now I know that I am probably gonna get all sorts of comments about a glue trap being inhumane, but these little critters contain all sorts of germs and diseases. I think its probably pretty inhumane to let them run all over my pantry and walk on my food! So my father-in-law took him outside. I don't know what happened to the little beady eyed thing after he left my house, but thank goodness he is out of my house. Now I need to go home and clean all the tops of my canned food and check out any bag of food that was not in its proper Rubbermaid container.

Also I might need to get me another tomcat to go outside. That would pretty humane don't you think?

Silly boy and girl, I mean young lady!

2009-02-09T10:43:00.001-06:00

Its that time of the week, its time for I heart faces!!!!!

The theme is silly!

So I think these are pretty silly :)

Kids Entry

My first adult entry. This is sorta bitter sweet, because its of my first born, a new young adult. :( Man that is hard to say.

So do you have some silly pictures? Go on an enter them in the contest!!

Shudder :(

2009-02-06T11:41:00.001-06:00

I hate snakes!!!! I really really do, but this is one big snake! Thank goodness its dead!

or not! :)

WaWaWa!!!!!

2009-02-04T21:19:00.001-06:00

Woo Hoo would you look at my Mama!!!!

Isn't she the cutest thing!!!! I love this picture! I love this picture so much, I took it from her house. :) I was nice though, I had copies made and gave Lisa, Robin, and Mama a framed copy of it for Christmas.

So I even though this carnival is sorta about stuff you would not scrapbook, I totally would scrapbook a copy of this. The original though is totally frame worthy!

Now go on over to Kristen's at We are THAT family place and have a wonderful time look at all the other great post. Then you can go read this post of mine to see why my family is totally THAT family.

Three totally's, THAT is totally a record. Ok now five... :)

Leaf blower Huh?

2009-02-04T14:57:00.003-06:00

***You may be seeing this post twice. How and why there are two I don't know, but I have comments on both so they will both be staying. Sorry for any confusion. :)***

A couple of weeks ago I did a post, that ended with some pictures my sister had taken of me. Pictures using a leaf blower.

Several people mentioned maybe needing to use a leaf blower in their pictures, so I thought I would give you a little insight on picture taking with a leaf blower.

Mama's birthday was on the 29th, so we celebrated it up at the photography studio my sister Deta has. (There are several stories coming from this shin dig, so this is one of many) Rundown of people there. Mama, Me, Lisa, Robin, Deta, Kristi (Lisa's BFF), and Syd.

During the course of the evening Deta started taking pictures of the others there, with the leaf blower. The following pictures were not taken by Deta, but rather by anyone who got my camera at any given moment.

First Kristi was up......

She was not to sure about this whole process.....

Me checking out the picture......

I like it, I really really like it!!!!!!

Deta started doing some pictures of her with out the leaf blower, so since I was holder of the leaf blower I started practicing on Robin.

Then the leaf blower turned on me....

I must say its a good way to get a face lift for a moment.

Robins turn...

Lisa giving the stinkeye to someone :).......

Then it came time for Mama's turn (syd got tired of waiting).....

While Mama was sitting in the chair (not that one up there) waiting to get her picture taken, the unthinkable happened. The boom light with the 15 pound weight on it, that we used for lighting fell over onto Mama's head!!!!!

She had a big ole' goose egg going on.

She had also just gotten her hair done that day, and I believe that's what saved her from being hurt any worse than she was. Because her hair was not moving. I think the boom light just bounced right off.

Deta felt so bad... :(

But Mama said don't worry about it I am fine!! :)

Moral of the story, leaf blowers can be fun to play with, but stay away from boom lights.

Leaf blower Huh?

2009-02-04T14:57:00.001-06:00

A couple of weeks ago I did a post, that ended with some pictures my sister had taken of me. Pictures using a leaf blower.

Several people mentioned maybe needing to use a leaf blower in their pictures, so I thought I would give you a little insight on picture taking with a leaf blower.

First Kristi was up......

She was not to sure about this whole process.....

Me checking out the picture......

I like it, I really really like it!!!!!!

Deta started doing some pictures of her with out the leaf blower, so since I was holder of the leaf blower I started practicing on Robin.

Then the leaf blower turned on me....

I must say its a good way to get a face lift for a moment.

Robins turn...

Lisa giving the stinkeye to someone :).......

Then it came time for Mama's turn (syd got tired of waiting).....

She had a big ole' goose egg going on.

Deta felt so bad... :(

But Mama said don't worry about it I am fine!! :)

Moral of the story, leaf blowers can be fun to play with, but stay away from boom lights.

I Heart this thing...

2009-02-02T13:13:00.001-06:00

I really do enjoy this whole "I Heart Faces" weekly contest.

Hopefully I will get all the rules right this time and be eligible to be in the contest.

So here is the one picture on this page, which is the one entry for today. :)

Why don't you head on over to....

And join in on the fun!!!

Dear Sydney

2009-02-01T20:31:00.001-06:00

I know Santa brought you "Edward" for Christmas.....

but I did not expect for you to become a vampire along with him......

I know being a new vampire you are hungry and all, but could you avoid trying to bite your Mother! I love the "Twilight" series and everything, but I do not want to become a vampire.

Now if you will excuse me I will go back to reading "New Moon" for the second time.

Love,

Your Mother the non vampire

To Infinity and Beyond......

2009-01-28T22:29:00.001-06:00

***update - I just received a call from my sister Robin, that yesterday, the day I actually wrote this post was the day of the 23rd anniversary of the loss of the Challenger Space Shuttle. ***

I live near a really neat and educational tourist attraction. The U.S. Space and Rocket Center. Where the actual movie "Space Camp" was filmed.

Do you want to know when the last time I went there was? I think I was in 7th grade. THAT was a long long long time ago. I don't even know if my kids have gone. Really its a shame. I need to take them.

We did go one time when my cousins were in from Michigan. I am thinking it was probably at Christmas time, cause from the looks of these pictures it was cold!

Don't ask me which rocket that is in the background. I really should know, but I don't. Sad to, since I only drive by it about once a week. Robin, Lisa, Holly, Lorie, Kristen, anybody want to help me out here??

Here we are in front of a space suit. Oooooooooo

It was real and I bet you its still there in the museum, if I ever went there to see it.

I remember one of my favorite things about going to the Space and Rocket Center was getting Dehydrated Ice Cream. That stuff was awesome. :)

Update #2 - My sister works out at NASA and just ate some dehydrated ice cream the other day, and is going to go get me some. :)

So if your ever up in North Alabama and want to go, let me know. I'd like to go there myself. Maybe we could go together. :)

***This has not been brought to you by the U.S. Space & Rocket Center or the National Board of Tourism***

For more Fro' Me to You's fly on over to We are THAT Family

This is just wrong!

2009-01-27T20:37:00.001-06:00

This morning I was getting ready, and heard a commercial on TV for a CD with Alvin and the Chipmunks singing the latest hits. You have got to be kidding me right? So I went to trusty ole YouTube to find the commercial. No luck :(

Instead I found something even worse. Something that you just might need therapy for after listening to. Brace yourself's.........

I know, I know, I am so sorry I had to subject you to that. I mean Simon does have a pretty good guitar solo in there, but I mean come on, can anyone compare to this......

Ahhhh Bon Jovi :) Oh this so takes me back to High School....

And just in case you need a little more to get over that awful cover by Alvin.....

Your Welcome :)

Joy

2009-01-26T10:29:00.001-06:00

I am loving the themes over at "I Love Faces" or "I Heart Faces" however you want to say it.

This weeks theme is "JOY".

It was a hard hard hard hard decision. I still really don't know if I picked the right one.

This is the one I decided on......

I just love the fun colors, the look on the girls faces. It brings me lots of joy to see Syd and her friends having so much fun together. It also brought me joy that out of all the hundreds of pictures I took of them on the "Rock and Roll" ride, that I got this shot. I mean they were going fast, and somehow it looks like I planned it for Autumn to be looking straight at me. There is no way that could have happened if I planned it.

Because this is what they looked like one of the next times around. I think they were about to fly out.

And this one is my favorite its not my entry, but it would be if the theme were scared, fear, or OH MY GOSH!!!! Look at the face on that little boy back there!! Oh that face is precious!!

So anyway that first one is my entry. Let me know what you think.

If you have some joyful pictures, go over and enter it in to ......

Knock on Wood

2009-01-25T19:40:00.001-06:00

Jennifer? Do you remember the other day we were talking on the phone and I said "Thank goodness none us have gotten the stomach bug that has been going around. Knock on Wood."

Well we didn't get the stomach bug, but I did get a cold that knocked me out for a couple of days. Maybe I should have knocked on wood a little harder. :[

So normally I can work through a cold. I mean its just a little cold. Well not this time. They sent me home from work Wednesday at 1:00 and I was out cold (no pun intended) until the next morning. Got up, got ready, and took Syd to school, went in to work (still looking like death warmed over) and they sent me home again. Back to bed I went. Finally Friday I was well enough to work. Even if I hadn't been I had to go in, way to much to do.

Now here I am with really nothing to blog about, because I have been sick. Things will be better next week.

I have not forgotten about my give away I had. I actually have some stuff for the box!!!! Some cute stuff to. :) I just need to get a few more things and then I will announce the winner and show you what is going in the box.

Until then, everybody go take some Airborne or extra vitamin C, cause getting sick is NOT fun.

Look what I just got!!!!

2009-01-20T15:55:00.001-06:00

Six pack here I come!!!!!!! :)

Freeze Frame!

2009-01-18T19:34:00.001-06:00

WARNING!! LOTS OF PICTURES!!

This Saturday we had a Birthday dinner for my Daddy, the teller of tall tales.

My lovely niece, who is older than me by a whole year and two months and eighteen days (but who is counting) got to come in from North Carolina. I just love it when Amanda comes in. We used to spend lots of time together when we were younger.

From L to R: Robin, Me, Amanda

So Saturday, I asked Deta to take a picture of me and Amanda together....

Turned out pretty good.

Unlike this one.....

I was afraid that with us both having offwhite on, and being against the light colored curtains, that it would wash us out and we might just be floating heads in the picture. So I asked Deta to take our picture with a darker background. That's when it happened, chaos ensued. Come on I'll show you why its so fun to be in my family......

We got our professional background out (also known as a throw) and a reflector and BAM instant studio :) .....

We had fun with the reflector.....

What?? Doesn't everybody carry a reflector around to take pictures??

I am so glad I am on this Alternative Eating Plan look at those cheeks and those jowls on my face. :[

Here we are trying to relax our cheeks from smiling so much

Here is the audience that was watching

Here is Deta taking the pictures

Here is my Great Niece Courtney acting like a goofball

(Beat y'all didn't know I was a Great Aunt, I really am a Great Aunt)

Courtney being bored

(actually I think she was saying will they ever stop taking pictures!!)

Here is a picture of Jess and Courtney that I jumped into. :)

And then my nephew Wes saying please hurry up my arms are tired.

When we were finished he did this....

Brrrr its cold.....

After all those pictures, Deta and I went to her studio and I was a guinea pig for some ideas she wanted to try out. Here are those shots.....

Man its amazing what a talented sister, a leaf blower and photoshop can do.

I wish my skin looked like that all the time!

(You would never guess that in those photos, I am sitting on a chair holding a leaf blower up toward my head.)

Quirky?!?!

2009-01-15T20:55:00.001-06:00

Do you have weird quirks? Come on you know you have some kind of weird quirkiness.

Jennifer tagged me for a meme on randomness. I am very very bad at meme's. Let me just apologize now for any past, present, or future meme tags. I am bad at getting them and awards posted, its not that I don't appreciate the thought, its the fact that I am a procrastinator, I have AADD, and as my Daddy says, "My mind is like Teflon, nothing sticks to it".

My point to all this is, it got me thinking about some quirks I have....

1. I do not like peanuts, walnuts, pecans, or anything like that in anything I eat. For Thanksgiving and Christmas, Lisa makes a special bowl of green stuff just for me without pecans. Thank you Lisa!

Because of this quirk, I being a Southern girl, will not eat Pecan Pie. I know its almost a sin to be Southern and not eat Pecan Pie, but I can't help it.

I love carrot cake, but wont eat it if the icing has pecans in it.

Don't mess up a perfectly good brownie or chocolate chip cookie with pecans or walnuts.

Its a whole texture issue.

2. Same for onions. If they are so finely chopped up that I can't see them anymore, I will probably eat it. Now I like onion rings, just not the onion part, I just want the crust. :) Again for Thanksgiving and Christmas I got special dishes made for me without onions.

3. If I go through the house and lock all the doors and then lay down in the bed and say "did I lock that door?", I can not go to sleep until I get up and check that door. Even though I know its locked.

4. I can not drink out of a slim fast can, or drink one of those smoothie things out of the bottle. The opening smells like soured milk and it really grosses me out.

5. If I dream about a snake, usually someone I know is pregnant. I can verify this happening twice. I also can take a needle and thread hold it over your wrist and tell you how many babies you will have and what they will be. I have about a 95% success rate on this. My sister Robin is in the 5%, I said Branden was going to be a girl. :)

So there you have it me in all me weird quirkiness. There are probably other thing, I just can't think of them now. I am sure my sisters and my Mama will add anything they can think of to the comments section.

I will completely understand if you no longer think the same of me. If you do decide to stick around, I cannot promise that some of my quirkiness will not rub off on you. You have been warned. :)

Awwww aren't we cute!!

2009-01-14T20:40:00.001-06:00

This is my sister Robin and myself.....

Just look at Robin's cheeks! I think we were probably 6 and 4. This would be during the stage of Robin's hair was so curly and fuzzy, you couldn't get a comb through it. This would also be pre-short hair for me. This is about the time I wanted to be Donny Osmond and right before Momma cut my hair off, because I would not stop chewing on it.

We are sitting on the bottom bed of our bunk beds. They were two twin beds, that would stack on top of each other. Held securely together by sitting one bed atop little 1 inch high knobs on the end of each post of the other bed.

Robin claims that my nieces Amanda and Lisa and myself (my nieces are older than me) pushed her off the top bunk. I think she was just sitting to close to the edge and lost her balance. Because I would never do such a thing, and neither would Amanda or Lisa.

Oh and don't you just love the wallpaper! That wall paper was there until I was probably about 14. I can remember there was a stain on the wallpaper from some chocolate ice cream. I also remember going to bed crying in that bottom bunk, because I had watched the movie King Kong and he died. Oh the memories a picture can bring back. :)

For more great memories, go visit Kristin at We are THAT family.

Wii have a problem!

2009-01-13T20:06:00.001-06:00

Someone in my house is addicted to the Wii, and its not me.

Its not Syd....

Its not Jessie.....

Its this precious one.....

You see last night as he was on his 2nd hour of Lego Star Wars, after an hour of me telling him to get off the thing. I know I should have just shut the thing off, but no I let it go on.

His daddy, walked in and told him, he had until he got out of the shower to be off the Wii. That didn't happen either, now he is grounded from it and his Nintendo DS.

When I got home from work, I found a sweaty, crying, freaking out little boy. I asked him, "Logan baby what is wrong". This is the answer I get......

"I can't live with out it!!! I can't breath, I am shaking all over, I NEED to play the Wii!!! (seriously he said this!)

My 8 year old is having Wii withdrawals.

I leave the room and a little while later he comes to me and says, "Momma, please go into the living room with Daddy, I need to talk to both of you."

So here I go in the living room, and then here comes Logan....

"I do not think it is fair that I am grounded from the Wii. How was I supposed to know WHEN Daddy got out of the shower. I need to be able to play the Wii, please, please, please, let me play the Wii!!!!"

Big Logan, Syd and I are trying not to laugh, ok Big Logan and I are trying not to laugh Syd on the other hand is laughing hysterically.

I tell him to let me and Daddy discuss it and maybe we can come up with a compromise. He runs out of the room while saying "yeah, you and Daddy compromise!"

He comes back in to get the verdict. He can play his DS for 1 hour tonight and resume playing the Wii tomorrow. After several minutes of back and forth negotiations, he finally agreed with the verdict handed down.

I pray we have no more Wiithdrawals tonight. It could be a long night.......

Right up my alley

2009-01-12T09:56:00.001-06:00

I saw this on Tidymom, Sandy Toes, and Jen at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam. Its a blog call "I Heart Faces", and they are having a contest in two categories, kids and adults. I love taking pictures of faces and getting interesting looks and expressions. I love it even more when I capture a certain something in their eyes. To top it off, The guest judge is Miz Booshay!! I am a lurker at her site, I look at it everyday, and sometimes I will comment, but most of the time, I just admire her work.

So this is the shot I chose. I have many I could have entered, but this one immediately came into my head.

Its a recent favorite I took of Sydney.

There are some awesome pictures entered, go on over and check them out!

A.E.P # 3

2009-01-12T08:39:00.001-06:00

Alternate Eating Plan Rule # 3......

Don't go to your friend Lisa's house, who is the best cook ever, when she has homemade potato soup and chocolate cake with homemade chocolate icing. Especially don't go, if the next day you are supposed to start a program called Scale Down Alabama, and you have to go weigh in.

---------------

On another note, thank you all for wishing me a Happy Blogiversary. I plan on drawing the name from the comments either this evening or tomorrow. So very soon, you will know what's going in the box. I can't wait to find out what's going in there also!! :)

My, My how time flies......

2009-01-09T04:30:00.000-06:00

It just seems like the other day I started this blog. I never would have imagined in a thousand years, that I would now have so many new and wonderful friends. Y'all Rock!!! I can remember when I was excited about getting one or two comments, and those were from family. Now sometimes I might get THIRTY, and I have SEVENTY people following me!!!! I really can't believe it, I mean I really am amazed that y'all keep coming back!

Today my blog turns 1 year old!!!! Yep January 9, 2008 is the day I started this thing. Ya know if I am not mistaken today is one of my best friends from my childhood's birthday, so Sonja if you are reading this Happy Birthday!

Let me give you a little background to how this all got started.......

~~~Scooby Doo Dream Sequence~~~

I was at the grocery store a little over a year ago, it was probably about October. As I was grocery shopping, I was on the phone with my sister Lisa. Here is our conversation (or at least something close to it):

Lisa: You need to go to this website

Me: Really what is it (Looking at the date on the milk)

Lisa: Its called The Pioneer Woman, she writes about her life on a ranch with her Husband Marlboro Man

Me: (stops dead in my tracks in front of the cheese, puts hand on hips and say) What? you want me to go to some website about a pioneer woman??? What does she want me to do grind my own wheat or something?!?!?!? (Lisa has her own wheat grinder or at least she used to)

(In my head I am picturing an older lady and her husband who smokes Marlboro's of course and live on their ranch, and for some reason my sister is fascinated by this.)

Lisa: No!!!! You wont have to grind your own wheat! Just go to the website, your gonna like it.

--------------

So at work a couple of days later I go to the website www.thepioneerwoman.com

and I am hooked. Apparently like a gazillion other people in the world! I can get no work done, I am laughing so hard and loud at work that people are coming to check on me, so I make them go to the website and then they are laughing, and so on and so forth. After a couple of months of reading her website, I started clicking on these interesting things called comments. I started going to the peoples sites who left them. That is when I realized that, "Hey, I can do this I think. Lets give it a shot."

And a blog was born......

Not a very good one, but it was a blog. I didn't even know what to write about, but I trudged on.

Lets read my very first post:

"Well this is my first post, and I don't have any idea what I'm doing. Apparently I am supposed to write down my thoughts, my ideas, my dreams. Lets see how long I last at doing that.
A little about me. I am a busy mom of three wonderful kids, sorry children (they are not goats (: ), who keep me extremely busy. On top of that I work full time. Thank goodness for my husband without him, I would be crazier than I already am.
So any way that's all , because I don't have anything else to say write now."

Boy that was some great stuff!!! (Can you hear the sarcasm?) I mean since that time I have called my kids, kids a billion times. Am I a hypocrite or what?!?!

and this is the one comment I had like two months later, right after I met my BBFF Jennifer.

jennifer said...

HEY, I'm out here! I had to read your first ever post (do you do that, read the first one on a person's site so you can see how styles have changed etc? or is this another weird Jennifer thing - wait, don't answer that). I'm totally done stalking you now, and I think I may go clean....I don't know, SOMETHING. Jennifer

I do have to admit I am really really surprised I lasted as long as I have, but oh am I so glad I have. The experience this has brought me, the friendships are just unbelievably awesome!!!

God has used this blog world in some pretty amazing ways, and y'all I can't wait to see what happens this next year!

Now I am going to do something I have not done in all of my long one year blogging career. I am going to have a give away. This give away is a little different though, because I don't know what I am going to give away.

The only thing I am for sure of is this. Whatever I give away, will fit in this box:

Its about the size of a shoe box, and yes I know its a Christmas box. You can always use the box next year. Seriously though I don't have any idea what I am going to put in it yet. It will come to me though. Also I will try my very hardest to get the gift out in a reasonable time frame. I am a horrible procrastinator, so hopefully it wont be next Christmas when you get this box, and whatever mystery prize comes with it.

So entering is simple just leave me a comment telling me how wonderful I am. Hahahaha Just kidding!!!

Just leave a comment, I don't care what you say. Well I do care about what you say, y'all mean alot to me, I just don't want you cussing or being potty mouthed. Not that, that has ever happened before. Oh just go leave a comment! :)

Anywho, Happy Blog Birthday, Blogiversary to me!!!!!!!!

Oh Bless My Ever Lovin' Heart

2009-01-07T22:07:00.001-06:00

Well its back in all its glory, and I am here, ready to embarrass myself and throw anyone else under the bus with me if they get to close. :)

____________________________________________________________

Ya Know I just really don't know what to say or do. So I think I will just hold my head in my hands and say "Oh My Gosh, I can not believe I looked like that!"

I had a MULLET!!!! And, And really bad glasses!!!!!!! And look at the V-neck sweater and the button up oxford shirt!!!!! What may I ask was up with that!!!!!!

Then come spring time apparently by the look of the back drop, I opted for my lovely Laura Ingles wanna be dress. WITH SOCKS!!!!!!!!!!

THEN!!! THEN!!!!..............

(Amanda, Robin, and yours truly poodle girl)

Apparently I stuck my finger in a light socket and dyed that yellow sweater green! Cause here I am AGAIN in a V-Neck sweater and a button up oxford shirt! I shudder to even think of the shoes I probably wore with any of those outfits.

I think I am gonna need therapy after this Fro' Me To You. ~sigh~

Ya know what I think???

I think God gives us those awkward stages to prepare us for the future. Cause NOBODY, I don't care how you think you look now wants to go back to looking like that!

For more events that were captured on film, and forever more shaped our lives, join us over at Kristen's. It just might be therapeutic.

That's my story....

2009-01-06T20:21:00.001-06:00

This story has been told many a times and I am sure differs some between my brother and sisters and myself.

When we were younger, and would go back to where my Daddy grew up. They lived down in Sinkin Cove right down Mont Eagle Mountain in TN/ He would tell us stories to keep us entertained on the way.

One of my favorites that always comes to mind was about this one time when he went fishing.........

I would imagine it was probably that time of year when spring was turning into summer. The air was clean and crisp, not yet to hot, but no where near cool. Something my Daddy like to do was go fishing.

There was this one time Daddy had caught this catfish. He put it on the line on the bank, and ever so often he would throw some water on it to keep it alive. After awhile, that catfish started breathing on its own, out of the water!

So Daddy let it off the line, and it eventually started moving around on the bank. By the time Daddy left it was moving pretty good on its own, so good that it followed Daddy home. So the catfish became Daddy’s pet. It would follow him everywhere.

One day as Daddy was heading off to school, he was crossing a little foot bridge that crossed over the creek. There was a slat missing in the bridge, and Daddy didn’t think anything about. The catfish had followed Daddy though and as Daddy got a little ways past where the slat was missing, he heard a splash. Realizing what had happened he turned around and ran back to that spot on the bridge. He looked down through the opening and saw his pet catfish belly up in the creek. The poor thing had drowned. :(

That’s my Daddy’s story and I am sticking to it. :)

You go PoGo

2009-01-06T08:20:00.001-06:00

Did you have a Pogo stick when you were younger??? We did, but I was not very good at it. My specialty was walking on coffee cans with strings that my Daddy made me. Now when I got older like 12 or something I did have a pogo ball. Now that I could handle. I think the pogo stick was one of Lisa favorites though. I wonder if it was the cause of any of her broken arms????

Guess what my Daddy got some of the grandkids for Christmas????

--------------

I told them "Don't go pogo right now, its raining and if you hit a slick spot it will fly out from under you!"

Did they listen?? Noooooo!! Did they almost fall??? Yessss!!

Robin did take some good shots of them with my camera though. Lets take a look.

Jim Wes

Robert Kate

Branden

L. L. got one also, but he had to leave for a basketball game and did not get to play with his here. When I got home, he started using the pogo stick, but not like you would think, he started using it as a machine gun. Yep sounds like him. Well at least he can't break his arm again that way. :)

Did you have a pogo stick? How many jumps were you able to get to before falling off? I think I might have been able to get to three. Yeah I know pitiful, I am telling you I was much better on the coffee can stilt things.

A.E.P. # 2

2009-01-05T17:03:00.001-06:00

Alternate Eating Plan Rule # 2

Don't let the pregnant girl (who used to be my partner in eating all things healthy) in the office bring you down with her. Don't let the excuse, "but the baby wants some chocolate", cause you to fall further into the pit. Remember in March she will loose some of that weight in one day, and you wont. Keep focusing on loosing the weight that you have gained with her so far. (Sympathy eating with her)

~Love Ya J :) ~

Surprise!!!

2009-01-04T22:11:00.001-06:00

Syds best friend Jessi turned 15 the other day. Syd and their other friend Megan wanted to do something special for Jessi. So they decided to throw her a surprise birthday party. Unfortunately Megan had prior plans for the date they had for the party, so she did not make it. :(

Sunday afternoon Syd, myself, and three other friends descended on Jessi's house.

She had no idea we were coming, so she was lying on the couch watching tv, probably ready to take a nap. We got there and said surprise and go get ready. Have you been around 5 teenage girls trying to get ready, even if its only one that is actually getting ready.

This right here is a momentous occasion. Jess never, and I mean NEVER likes to wear real shoes. Flip flops and flip flops only for that girl. Even if its 20 degrees outside, but since everyone else had boots on, Jess wore her super cute black boots.

Then Jess opened some presents...

Syd gave her socks, long tall socks, cause thats what she likes to wear for cheerleading practice. Thats her dad Ricky, hi Ricky. Everyone say hi to Ricky. He reads, but never comments.

So this is our group and we are ready to go.....

But go where???????

Jess has no idea where we are going, or what we are doing. ~insert evil laugh~

We blindfolded her so she would not know where we were going.

~insert evil laugh again~

So we lead her down the cobblestone sidewalks of downtown.....

I believe this is right after Syd almost hurt them both, after tripping over the sidewalk.

And here we are at the entrance of a very special place....

Santa's Village!!!!!!!!

We had our picture made with (Notice how I say we and I am in none of the pictures)

A Gingerbread Man

A penguin...actually it was a penguin and an elf, but I did not have permission from the elf so he did not get to be in the picture.

Then with some super cute, groovy, makes everything look all psychedelic and stuff glasses.....

Then we passed through the seven levels of the Candy Cane forest, through the sea of swirly twirly gum drops, and then we walked through the Lincoln Tunnel. Ok not really, we went to the icicle maze Woooooo...

Notice that it is just Syd and Jess, the others were waiting in line for hot chocolate

Did I mention that it was freezing? After quite mild weather, old man winter decided to show up for a little while on our little excursion.

While they were still waiting on hot chocolate (they had to wait forever), Syd and Jess went to go make cookies.

Waiting in line.....

Icing the cookies....

Eating the cookies.....

So we meet back up with the others, still waiting in line....

Here we are on the sled at the children around the world area.

Then we were off to our next location. I didn't get any pictures there. I did not want to get my camera taken up. We went and saw "Twilight"!! That was my third time to see the movie. At the movie we picked up another girl, and after the movie we lost two girls.

We went and ventured through Target for awhile and then we went home. Thats my story and I am sticking to it!

I do not know what that is in their hands or where it came from. You believe me right???

A.E.P # 1

2009-01-02T21:20:00.001-06:00

Alternate Eating Plan Rule # 1 -

Don't beat yourself up for eating a cheeseburger and french fries (From a greasy diner, the best cheeseburgers you can get!)after your son's basketball game. I mean it was totally celebratory, they won their second game (all season!). Everyone knows that celebration dinners are totally calorie and fat free. ~duh~

(Tomorrow is another day)

Drum Roll Please......

2008-12-31T11:00:00.000-06:00

Jules from "The Roost" is having a little New Years Eve Party!!

A count down to the New Year!

Make a Top Ten of your favorite pictures, post, or videos of 2008.

So here we go my Top 10 photos of 2008 and the links to the post they go with. :)

Top Ten photos of 2008

10. Little Logan explains the meaning of life over marshmallows..

9. There is a tie on this one...

Duck poops on back steps..... ( I thought it might be big foot)

And

Cow falls in pool

8. Kissy Fish....

7. Wow this makes me look really skinny! I need to live in a bubble :)....

6. Barbie's or Diva's you choose....

5. Syd cut her hair off for Locks of Love

4. Jessie's Graduation....

3. Kung Fu Fighting....

2. Trunk or Treat 2008....

And the number 1 photo or photos of 2008!!!!!

1. Big Head Little Body!!!!!

Yeah for the Top 10!!!!

Phew!!! That was hard though! I have so many that would have easily made this list, but then this would be the longest post in creation.

I wonder what will be in store for 2009?????

Oh My GOSH!!!!!!

2008-12-30T19:19:00.001-06:00

This is the best stuff EVER!!!!!!

I know this is possibly a little late notice on this recipe, but you may still have time to run out and get the ingredients, or you have the ingredients. Either way you need to make this stuff.

I have made it twice already since Christmas Eve! Yes its that good! I have had my fill of it though and it is now not on my "alternate eating plan". No that consists of carrots and green leafy things. :[

Anyway back to the best stuff ever!!!!

~If you already know about this stuff don't rain on my parade, just tell me how wonderful this sounds and thank me for giving you the recipe.~

I got this from my friend Lisa (Lisa comment already) who got it from our other friend Misty, who got it from somebody else at a Relay for Life thing.

Buffalo Chicken Dip

9 x 13 pan

2 cream cheese (softened)

1 cup of ranch dressing

You can use store bought, but if you want the best make your own ranch!

about 3 1/2 chicken breast cooked and shredded

buffalo wing sauce

(You can buy it or make your own. I make my own)

To make the buffalo wing sauce I just take Hot Sauce and melt butter into it. Unfortunately I can't give you specific measurements. I just put what feels right. :)

Cheese (Cheddar and Monterey Jack, or whatever kind floats your boat)

Boil the chicken

Mix the cream cheese and the ranch

Put in the bottom of the pan

Eat a chocolate chip cookie that just came out of the oven :)

Make your Buffalo Wing sauce if you go that route.

Its about a cup of hot sauce to a 1/2 stick of butter. I think :)

Mix shredded chicken and buffalo wing sauce together.

Spread on top of cream cheese and ranch

(Sorry I got a little ahead of myself here. Just forget you saw the cheese on here yet.)

Ok now add the cheese

Put in the oven at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes

Or until it looks like this

Eat with corn chips or tortilla chips.

If you like buffalo chicken, you are gonna LOVE this! If you want people to Ooo and ahhh over your cooking, make this!!!! It is the perfect thing to take to a New Years Eve Party.

World Tour

2008-12-29T21:31:00.001-06:00

RockBand, excuse me I mean Guitar Hero World Tour has taken over our household. Right now as I am typing Syd is playing AGAIN, and if Jessie were here she would be playing too.

Here are some random pictures of the new phenomenon.

This evening was no different. I come home from work and Syd starts playing the thing.

Only tonight the area she was playing in was occupied by some Lego enemy forces...

She apparently got to close, because this innocent face playing quietly with his legos.....

Did this........

Right hook miss.... Spear, full contact.....

I think the graphics on the Guitar Hero have something to do with it, I think it can cause random violence in 8 year old boys....

I also think it mesmerizes 14 year old girls into playing 14 out of 24 hours a day, the other 10 are spent sleeping. As we speak she just finished the last of all the gigs on the World Tour, we just got the thing Thursday! She has been playing just a weeee bit much!

Just a theory....

Pigs

2008-12-28T18:49:00.001-06:00

Some of you will be able to relate. Some of you may just be in denial. Some of you will have NO idea what I am talking about.

When you have girls and then a boy, well I think its a little different. You are used to girls. Girls who want to smell good. Who want to look pretty and cute. Who care about what there room looks like. Hahahaha ok, ok, I am joking on that last one. The girls room is a mess!

L.L. on the other hand well he is just a mess. Fights to get him in the bath. In the summer he thinks swimming in the pool is a bath. He would wear the same clothes everyday if we let him. Now I will give him this, He does like to smell good when he goes places. He likes to get into his Dads Ralph Lauren Cologne, and smell good for the girls. His words not mine.

His room, Its a war zone, literally. Little army men set up strategically to pierce the foot of any approaching enemy. Lego warriors, tanks, and planes scouting the perimeter of the room. Guarding from the sisters and the dog, who might be looking for the stash of candy that is hidden on top of the bunk bed and inside the video rocker chair (because it now has a split in the middle of it from repeated abuse by L.L. himself).

Sometimes you just have enough of the messiness of it all. Like when you can smell strange smells coming out of the room. I am there, I have had enough. So I sent him and his Daddy into the pit to clean it up. So far I have seen B.L. come out with 6 glass Coca-Cola bottles left from Christmas, 3 cereal bowls with cereal still in them, 2 plates, and numerous candy wrappers. They may be in there awhile.

L.L. came out at minute ago and had this to say, now remember he is 8....

L.L: "Mom I don't understand why you want my room clean? I want to live like a pig."

Me: " You are not going to live like a pig"

L.L: "Why"

Me: (classic Mommy response) "Because I am the Mom and you are the kid and I said so"

L.L. " I am not a kid, I am a small person and I can live like a pig if I want to, and pigs are cute.

Yes Little Logan they are cute, but you are still not going to live like one. :)

Would you look at what Santa Brought......

2008-12-26T23:02:00.001-06:00

Christmas morning started as usual, but usual in our house is not like everyone else's. My kids would still sleep until 10:00 a.m. even if its Christmas morning. Yes they are excited that it is Christmas, but they also like their sleep, even Little Logan. Actually this year Big Logan got up before everyone else and then had to wake us up because he was bored.

So where was I, Oh yeah Christmas as usual.

Syd on the couch still not awake......

Until.........

She was told of a note on the tree for her....

So she runs to the Pantry.........

(I think she thinks its Pop-Tarts!)

Hello, Edward!!!!!!!

I hear you asked for me for Christmas :)

YES!!! YES I DID!!!!!!!!!!

Edward watched us open the rest of the presents, and all was good until........

Someone got a whiff of the "smelly" vampire. Cannon is a descendent of wolves and werewolves, so he was not happy. I think the vents must have come on, because he did not even notice he was here until after about 30 minutes of Edward being there.

Syd is trying to explain to Cannon, that Edward is now part of the family. That they need to get along. Even though it is not easy for vampires and werewolves to co-exist he needs to try for the family. :)

He ain't buying it......

He has gotten used to Edward though. He doesn't bark at him near as much as he did in the beginning.

Edward likes to join in on family activities. Right now Rock band (more on that later) is a big thing at our house.

(Notice that it is now dark outside, and she still has not changed clothes. She has been there playing Rock band alllllllllll day long.)

It is sort of funny though, ever so often you will be walking through the house and catch a glimpse of him out of the corner of your eye, and he will scare the snot out of you. Syd likes to set him up strategically to catch you off guard. Like right inside her bedroom door so when Jessie comes home in the middle of the night, he is standing there waiting. Ya know cause he never sleeps. :)

I hope Santa was good to you, and I hope you have had a wonderful Christmas!

Happy Birthday Jesus

2008-12-24T09:31:00.001-06:00

Have a safe and wonderful Christmas. Cherish the memories you make with your family and remember why we have this time of year. :)

Can you say Crazy?

2008-12-22T13:32:00.001-06:00

I am tired of apologizing for my blog absences. So I am going to make one more blanket apology for the last couple of days and any future days to come in which I neglect my blog.

I am sorry. :)

Boy I don't know about y'all but I feel better.

So here is a run down of thing that have been going on with me.

Saturday - Christmas get together at my Daddy's house.
Saturday evening - Fussing with Syd about the fact that she did not clean like she said she would for get together for her friend the next day. In turn she did not get to go to a special someone's house. Sorry Sydie, but that is life. I love you though. :)
Saturday evening - My MIL had to take her Mother to emergency room thought she had pneumonia, but it's bronchitis. Everything is fine. (Stacy call me and I will fill you in)
Sunday - Church
Sunday after church - Christmas at my MIL
Sunday afternoon - Take a bunch of Syds friends to ambush Syds Friend Jess, for her birthday and take her blindfolded to Santa's Village. (It was freezing!!! Literally felt like the North Pole. Its was like 70 the day before. Welcome to weather in North Alabama)
Sunday evening - After our fingers and toes fell off at Santa's Village, we went and saw a movie. Can everyone say "Twilight"! Third time people Third time.
Sunday night - Took four of the six girls to go run amuck in Target.
Sunday night - Took the girls to do something I can not mention on the grounds that it might incriminate me.
Monday here I am at work :)

Hey I also wanted to show you this cute little decoration I got at a craft fair the other day.

Shoot, never mind, I accidentally erased those pictures. :( I will take some more and show you later.

So here are some random pictures of my tree.

I took these pictures through those glasses that make shapes in the lights. Isn't that cool!!!

And as I stepped back to take pictures of the tree from top to bottom, this is what I got.........

Tree tip for next year -

If you want a taller tree, don't go buy one. Build a box to stand it up on. We have a 9 1/2 foot tree up on a 1 1/2 foot box. Thus lifting it off the ground making the tree taller and giving you more room for presents underneath.

Your Welcome :)

Oh and by the way, if I have not been to visit your blog, its mainly because I had to hit "mark as read" in my reader. There were over 500 blog post in there, and there was just NO way. :)

Poof!!!! Its a Spoof!!!!!

2008-12-18T22:48:00.001-06:00

If you have not watched the movie "Twilight", or read the book, you may not get these videos. They are absolutely hilarious though if you have!!!

I don't think Syd and I have laughed so hard in forever!

If you have already seen them, watch them again. If you have not seen them, watch them now.

Santa C

2008-12-17T23:40:00.001-06:00

That's what he was called in my little hometown. Not sure why he called himself Santa C, but I will tell you he was a very realistic Santa. I think it may have actually been THE SANTA!!!! One Christmas Eve I even asked for his signature when he came and left the presents. I had a paper set out and everything for him to sign. One of his elves that help him must have forged his name though, because it was not the same signature that was on the picture he had autographed for me a few weeks before that.

Robin looks like she is about to cry. She is right on the edge of hysteria. Biting her lip, arms ready to reach out for Mama, tears welling up in her eyes.

Now notice the next year, or maybe it was two years later, I don't remember. My hair is way longer, I have on a hideous shirt that says "hustle", and Robin is no where to be found.

For more Fro me to You Christmas fun, go over to

Kristen's at We are THAT Family. :)

Is everybody out there finished with there Christmas shopping? Well I'm not. :[

A,B,C,D,E..........

2008-12-15T20:20:00.001-06:00

A few weeks ago Chris at Just a girl, had this party, about easy projects that even I can do. While visiting all the Mr. Linky links, I came across this really cool idea from Andrea at Big Creek Cottage. I said to myself, "Self that is so stinkin cute, you have got to try it!". So I did, tonight, cause I needed to get away to my crafty happy place. That lasted all of five minutes before someone (Syd) found me and started repeating over and over and over again, "So you got any projects you want me to work on! Huh, huh, do ya, do ya!!!!!" My happy place was lost. :( I ventured on though and finished MY project. :)

You will need the following items:

A canvas board thing (yes I do know what I am doing, sorta) I used an 8 x 10, but you could go smaller if you wanted.

Initial of choice, blown up to size of choice to be traced on canvas of choice

Tracing paper (grey, not white, believe me white does not work on white)

Lots of crayons

Now I took the letter and lined it up oh so carefully (eyeballed) on the Canvas with the tracing paper in between

It should leave chosen initial on chosen canvas

Now here is the tricky part. Cut the crayons to fit your initial. The tricky part is deciding what piece should go where, and which way, and which color.

When your done, it should look a lot better than mine, but this was my first time and Syd approved so I guess it was all right. Also as you noticed I have the teachers name beside the initial. I traced that also and then went over it with a paint pen. I framed it in a shadow box frame, because I was afraid of the crayon's getting hit and knocked off. You could just use a frame with no glass if you wanted to. Whatever floats your boat.

All in all this was a very easy and quick project. I give it two thumbs up!

I have no excuse :(

2008-12-15T12:22:00.001-06:00

I only have lots and lots of reasons, normal life reasons. Legitimate work, home, kids, Church, crazy Christmas season, finished reading all the Twilight Saga reasons. So forgive me again for not being as available on here as I usually am.

So since I have been such a bad blogger, and any post that is worth me writing has pictures to go with it, and since I left my external hard drive with my pictures on it at home, and since this is the longest run on sentence ever, lets play a game.

Lets take a break from the it all and ponder some really really important life questions.

1. Would you rather........

Become invisible at random and uncontrollable times

-OR-

Always hear everyone's thoughts?

2. Would you rather......

Be nocturnal

-OR-

be an insomniac?

3. Would you rather......

Have one million dollars handed to you today

-OR-

Ten million in ten years?

4. Would you rather......

See Everything upside down

-OR-

hear everything backwards?

5. Would you rather......

Never be able to drive on the freeway again

-OR-

never again make a green light?

Now pick one and leave your answer in the comments section. No prizes sorry :(

Just have fun and you have to choose one and you have to answer it. No backing out, if you are reading this post, leave a comment, even if it is just a smiley face. :)

Now I must go and I promise I will return, hopefully tonight or tomorrow. Unless I forget something else I was supposed to do and remembered it at the last minute.

Chosen

2008-12-11T12:00:00.001-06:00

Last Sunday night was out Christmas Musical at Church. Our expressive worship group performed in between the children and the adult choir (which I really should have been in , but I have missed to many practices. Life ya know). Myself and another wonderful lady from Church lead the expressive worship team. I love helping them with this. No matter if I am tired and worn out when I get to practice, they normally make me laugh somehow or another. The name of the group is "Chosen", and the expressive worship consists of drama, movement, and sign language. This group of teenagers are awesome to work with. It is such a joy to watch God work through them.

This past Sunday we performed to "Jesus Messiah", by Chris Tomlin. I wish I had a video, but I did not bring the video camera and I can not find my USB cable for the thing anyway. ~sigh~

I pulled a video off of YouTube of the song. You can listen to the song while you read the rest of this post. Oh and you can watch the video also. :)

He became sin
Who knew no sin

That we might become His Righteousness
He humbled himself and carried the cross
Love so amazing

Love so amazing

Chorus:
Jesus Messiah
Name above all names
Blessed Redeemer
Emmanuel

The rescue for sinners
The ransom from Heaven

Jesus Messiah
Lord of all
His body the bread

His blood the wine
Broken and poured out all for love
The whole earth trembled
And the veil was torn
Love so amazing
Love so amazing, yeah
Chorus:
Jesus Messiah
Name above all names
Blessed Redeemer
Emmanuel
The rescue for sinners
The ransom from Heaven
Jesus Messiah
Lord of all
All our hope is in You

All our hope is in You
All the glory to You, God
The light of the world

For more Fro Me to you's (even though this will go in a scrapbook someday) join Kristen over at We are THAT Family. Next time maybe I will have a video for you. :)

**Did anybody from church video this performance?????????***